


First Day First-Aid

by marigoldcrown



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Blood Donation, Blood Drinking, Blood and Injury, Bloodletting, Buzzfeed Unsolved References, Consent, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Developing Friendships, Elevators, Explicit Language, First Aid, Friendship, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderless, Medical Device, Medical Jargon, Medical Procedures, No Romance, No Smut, Reader-Insert, Supernatural Elements, Trapped In Elevator, Vampire Shane Madej, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26614135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marigoldcrown/pseuds/marigoldcrown
Summary: You're a qualified First Aid Technician and you've recently been employed to work at one of BuzzFeed's offices as the Health and Safety Officer.You get trapped in an elevator with BuzzFeed employee Shane Madej. He's a vampire. He needs blood.This is an unconventional situation, but you're keen to help out.
Relationships: Shane Madej/Sara Rubin
Kudos: 22





	First Day First-Aid

**Author's Note:**

> i have a bit of a thing for medical blood-letting i guess
> 
> this is a non-shipping fic (aside from shane and sara), only friendship develops as a result of this situation! it's pretty absurd as a scenario tho
> 
> don't read if you're squeamish about bleeding, blood donation, medical procedures, first aid stuff, or being stuck in an elevator

The radio buzzed softly through your headphones and you tapped your heel inside its boot as you kept your eye on the metal interface set into the wall. Just a second later its upper arrow symbol lit up and the elevator doors rumbled as they slid open. With a single step, you entered the compartment and pressed the button for the 6th floor. The carpeted floor vibrated as the doors shut and the elevator began to ascend. 

Your immediate expectation, once the elevator made its journey, was to find BuzzFeed’s Founder and CEO Jonah Peretti. Your appointment with him began at 11, and you imagined it would cover a basic introduction to the rest of the team, as well as a tour of the office building so that you were familiar with the environment. Pretty critical knowledge for a First Aid Technician. 

When the elevator paused at the 3rd floor, the doors parted and a man was on the other side. He was conversing with another man who was stood up at his desk, and the two were engaged in some kind of banter. 

“Get it right this time, you jack-ass.” 

“Wait, run it by me one more time please, Ryan? A triple Frappuccino with vanilla syrup and an extra shot of espresso?”

The other man pulled a face and threw a scrunched paper ball at his laughing colleague. It bounced off his shoulder and lightly hit your knee before dropping to the carpet. 

“Oh Jesus, sorry!”

The first man raised his eyebrows before turning to glare at his colleague. “Ry, you can’t just go around lobbing things at people who have nothing to do with our coffee arguments.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t being such an idiot.”

“No it’s okay, don’t worry.” You joked it off, waving your hand at Ryan before picking the ball up. “Do you need this?” Ryan shook his head with a grin. “I’ll put it in the next bin I find then.” You kept the ball in your pocket so that you wouldn’t forget about it. 

The taller man entered the elevator and pressed the button for the Ground Floor. You gritted your teeth slightly, feeling stupidly apologetic for making him go all the way to the 6th floor before arriving on the ground. He didn’t look too inconvenienced though, instead just flashing you a friendly smile before pulling out his phone. You only realised now just how tall he was, but he had a relaxed posture, easy-going and casual. 

You were slightly concerned at the odd mechanical whirring that you heard above you. It didn’t sound like a normal elevator sound. You glanced upwards, and when the electronic dashboard flashed for the 5th floor, the whirring stopped. And so had the elevator. You waited a few seconds, but nothing happened. The bulbs in the elevator began to flicker. This wasn’t good.  
And you felt even more afraid when the mechanical whirring started up again, before shuddering to a halt. 

“Well. That ain’t normal.” 

You turned to look at the man, who now looked understandably concerned. Being that he presumably worked here and would otherwise be familiar with the elevator, you felt even more anxious as he pressed a hand to the doors. 

“Nope, they’re completely dead.”

You noticed that the dashboard was also flickering. You touched the Alarm button and the intercom crackled into action. 

_“Hello, is anyone in there?”_ buzzed a woman’s voice. 

“Marie? Yeah, it’s Shane. I’m in here with the new First Aider.” 

_“Jesus, okay. Yeah, the elevator’s malfunctioning. We’re calling the Fire Department. They’re gonna have to pry you out, the power’s completely gone throughout the whole building. We’ll turn on the back-up generator so that you guys will at least be safe in there until they arrive, but we can’t afford to keep the general power on in case the elevator suddenly drops. Can you guys sit tight?”_

“Yeah, I think we’ll be alright. What should we do if the intercom stops working?” You asked.

Shane held up his phone. “It’s alright, I got their number. Marie, whereabouts are we?”

_“You’re jammed between the 4th and 5th floor.”_

“Well, at least Ryan can’t mock me through the door.”

The woman on the end of the intercom laughed. _“Ain’t that a blessing. Alright, we’ll check in with you every so often until they arrive. Just sit tight.”_

Shane stepped back and leaned against the horizontal metal rail. For a second, he looked a bit anxious and shifted uncomfortably. He noticed you watching and straightened up, looking relaxed again. “This is your first day, right? Don’t worry, I promise this sorta thing doesn’t happen often.”

“Eh, it’s okay. Nothing much fazes me.”

A few minutes passed, and you noticed that Shane was tapping his foot more rapidly as each minute slid by. His hands were in his jean pockets and he was biting his lip. “Jesus, they’re taking their time.” He briefly searched for something in his satchel, and cursed.  
_“Fuck, must have left it upstairs.”_ He muttered.

Every so often Marie buzzed in, and you fed back that you were okay. Though, you were getting slightly concerned with Shane’s increasing apparent discomfort. Maybe he just needed the bathroom?

Each minute passed by more slowly. You weren’t one to get panicky, in your line of work it was necessary to not panic, but you’d noticed your hands were getting clammy. Shane looked even worse. He was leaning more fervently on the railing, as if trying to steady himself. His skin was pale and waxy and his eyes looked sunken. He breathed heavily and it didn’t sound good. 

“Hey, are you okay? You don’t look so good.”

Shane lifted his head and his eyes were closed. You could see sweat beading down his face. 

“Sir, you really don’t look well. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“I’m fine, really. Don’t worry.” 

“I hate to say it but you clearly aren’t.”

“I can’t say what it is. I haven’t told anyone here. If they knew, I’d never be able to come back.”

“Sir, it’s okay, you don’t have to tell me. I just want to help. How can I help you?”

_If this guy’s having some kind of medical emergency and I fail to help him, then it won’t just be him who won’t be able to come back._

Shane was looking like he was going to vomit. “Shane, can you sit down and lean against the wall?” He clearly wasn’t in a position to protest so he did as you advised. You knelt beside him and placed the back of your hand to his forehead. He was burning up all over. A fever?

“Are you phobic around lifts? Do you need medication? Is your chest aching?” You were barraging him with questions, but unfortunately, it was necessary. Shane shook his head at each one. Reaching for your water bottle, you passed it to him. He chugged a fair bit of it and it seemed to help. Marie crackled through the intercom again. “Hello? Are we close to being let out? Shane isn’t doing so good-.”

Shane reached up to cover the microphone of the intercom. “Alright, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you. It’s just…. It ain’t normal, okay?”

“All I care about is helping you right now.”

“You gotta promise to keep this a secret, alright? The only other person who knows about this is my girlfriend.”

You ran a finger over your lips to show they were sealed. Shane let out a breathy laugh. “Now that I think about it, the fact that we don’t really know each other makes this a little easier.” He met your eyes. “The truth is, I’m running low on blood. I need it to survive.”

“Blood? But it doesn’t look like you’re bleeding anywhere, do you mean internally?”

“No. I mean I need to replenish myself. I gotta consume it.”

He didn’t seem too surprised at your taken aback expression. Okay. The man’s a vampire. This certainly wasn’t something you had come across before.  
Oddly enough, the worse he looked, the more “undead” he seemed. His previously chipper attitude was gone, replaced with straining and obvious pain. His skin was ice white, his veins looked like painted bruises around his temples and in his hands. 

But right now that didn’t matter, you didn’t have the time to think on it. Your job was to preserve life.

“You’re sure that’s what you need? Not sugar, or hydration?”

He nodded. “Trust me. But my blood-chug-mug is upstairs at my desk.” 

Blood-chug-mug. You had to stifle a laugh. 

A part of you did wonder if this was some elaborate initiation process, or maybe a second, secret part of the interview process to test out your efficiency at providing first aid. Either way, if it was, you had to do your job. 

“Normally I keep it with me, in case I start to run dry. Happens every few hours. Normally I just gorge on animal blood. Or any spare or unfit blood they have at banks. Only once before have I taken it directly from a person, and that was my girlfriend. She consented entirely, mind you, but still, it’s not something we prefer to do.”

“And she’s alright now?”

“What?” Shane searched your eyes for answers. Then it clicked. “Oh, yeah. She’s not undead or anything. Becoming a vampire would mean you’d consume my blood. It’s relatively safe to consume human blood, provided it isn’t to the point that I drain ‘em entirely.”

You nodded, thinking. “But you need blood right now?” Then an obvious solution dawned on you. “What about me?”

“What?” Shane cast you a confused look. You blushed, because if it was anything like in the fiction or the films, vampiric blood consumption was usually quite an intimate and… for lack of a better word, erotic process.

“I know it sounds weird because we don’t know each other and it’s quite personal, but you said before that this might mean there’s less consequences. This is professional, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Shane nodded his head in contemplation. 

“I’m clean, I have healthy blood. I don’t have anything transmissible or contagious. I can even do it like they do at a blood donation clinic.” 

You rolled up your sleeve and pointed to the crook of your arm. “There’s a good vein here, right? Would that work?”

Shane was staring at you, as if maybe a little concerned by your enthusiasm. Well, you certainly couldn’t be faulted on that. It was something praised about you when you went to job interviews. He nodded. 

“Y-Yeah, that’s good.”

He was looking worse and worse as each second passed by. He looked pretty young, maybe early 30’s, but his current condition made him look older, more decrepit. The man reached out a finger and gently pressed it against the dip in your arm. You could hear him swallow and sweat dripped down his face. “Yeah, please. I mean, if you could, I’d be so grateful. Really.”

You nodded and unzipped your bag, pulling out the First Aid kit. You felt guilty about asking Shane to return your water bottle, but you needed it right now. You gulped as quickly as you could to make sure that you were plenty hydrated. If you suddenly collapsed during the procedure, Shane wouldn’t be able to be saved.  
As you drank, you searched in the kit for a triangular bandage. Unwrapping it from its plastic packet, you unravelled it and pulled your uniform sleeve up higher. Rolling up the bandage, you wrapped it around your upper arm and tightened it by slotting a pen between the knot. You twisted the pen until it was painfully tight. With a tourniquet in place to ensure consistent blood flow but no risk of severe haemorrhaging, you used your other arm to whip out the small bottle of disinfectant kept in the kit and held it to Shane. 

“Can you please dab a little bit of this on my arm? It won’t taste good but it’s necessary so the area is clean.” 

Shane nodded and squirted a tiny bit of the sanitiser into the cotton wad you gave him. He rubbed it against the spot whilst you clenched and unclenched your hand repeatedly, feeling for a vein to rise to the surface. Your skin became slightly warped as a worthy vein pressed to the surface. You gently pressed two fingertips against it, feeling it bump and slightly bulge. You nodded and looked at Shane. “This should be fine, I think.”

You could feel your own forehead beading with sweat, and hear your heart pounding in your ears, the way it normally does whenever you donate blood. Shane nodded back, now panting, and he met your eyes. “You positive?”

“Yeah, I’m O positive.”

Shane’s eyes widened and he erupted in a small fit of laughter. “No, I mean, are you sure about this?”

“Oh. Yeah, you said it’s safe, right? And we don’t really have any other option.”

Shane got to his knees and you held your arm out to him. You could almost see the hunger in his eyes, and he took hold of your wrist perhaps a little too enthusiastically. You gulped. His eyes closed for a second, and he dipped his head. “Thank you, really. I mean it. Thank you.”

“It’s really okay, honestly –" 

You were cut off when the man leaned down and a searing pain shot up your entire arm and shoulder, spreading through your body. You’d expected pain, there usually was with blood-letting, but the intensity of two needle-sharp fangs breaking your skin and cutting into your vein had you gritting your teeth and wincing, trying not to vocally betray your discomfort as your eyes watered. 

You immediately felt your blood gushing out, aided by the tourniquet, and a few trickles of it dripped down your arm, dripping onto the carpet you both sat on. You kept your fist clenched and Shane immediately relaxed as he took what he needed, swallowing eagerly as your blood nourished him. You could feel it bubbling out, thickly pooling in the man’s mouth, almost black in the dim elevator light as it dripped from your elbow. The fact that the procedure was so sterile almost made it more nightmarish than if your blood had sprayed all over the walls. Maybe this was the result of it being through your arm and not your neck.

Every few breaths, Shane stammered out a _“thank you”_ before continuing to drink and you responded with a shaky “It’s okay”, trying to sound as okay as possible to not worry him. In all honesty, you were okay, your body was just running on adrenaline as it registered you were injured and bleeding quite fiercely. Your brain was a mass of confusion as it processed your injury, heightened to exhilaration as it tried to work out why you’d deliberately hurt yourself. 

You tried to focus on other things instead, kept your breathing steady, in and out, feeling your weight on the ground, squinting at the bright halogen elevator light, other things to detract from your brain freaking out. Your throat was dry and you swallowed repeatedly, almost in time with Shane. His free hand found your shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. His praises went from _“thank you”_ to _“you’re doing amazingly, you’re just super”_ to _“you’re a Godsend, really”_. It couldn’t help but make you warm with pride and you smiled at him, though you couldn’t see his face as it was lowered to your arm. 

“Squeeze my shoulder when you’re nearly done, okay? I’ll need to be quick to whip something on top of it, else this elevator’s gonna look like that one scene from _The Shining._ ” You could hear Shane wheezing between his gulping and you couldn’t help but laugh too. Glancing at the hands on your arm and free shoulder, you could wondrously see how his physical state was improving. He was no longer trembling, his skin returned to its former soft warm tone, his breath became stable and even, and he was no longer straining. 

Taking a last suck, Shane squeezed your shoulder when the procedure was completed, and he steadily removed his jaws from your arm. You’d used the time to collect a cotton wad from the kit and the second Shane pulled away, you replaced his fangs with the cotton, pressing firmly into the wound and placing your thumb on your elbow to stem the bleeding. Shane rummaged through the First Aid box and unwrapped a bandage, winding it securely around your arm. Neither of you said a word, but you didn’t need to, the relief and gratitude in the man’s face said everything. You wearily grinned at him as he tied the bandage into a knot, before reaching up and withdrawing the pen wedged between the folds of the tourniquet, springing it loose. Immediately, feeling flooded into your fingers and heat tingled in their ends. 

“Thank you. I know I said it plenty, but really, thank you.” 

Shane grasped your other hand. Looking at him, you could see how the warmth and joviality had returned to his eyes as he beamed at you. Remarkably, not a drop of blood was visible anywhere on his face. He evidently was a tidy drinker. You gingerly stroked the bandage and winced when your arm throbbed dully beneath it. Shane placed your water bottle in your hand and you downed the last few mouthfuls as he rolled your sleeve down, hiding any evidence. You’d expected a big bruise there later but it would be easy to pass it off as having a blood test.

“Thanks,” you said. Your voice sounded tired, and you were feeling fairly woozy. Good thing you weren’t scheduled for any training today. Within the next few hours, you knew you’d be feeling fine.

“We’ll get you more when we get outta here, don’t worry.” 

Shane put his arm around you and you tried not to slump against him as he gave you a sweet hug. “At least I can call you a friend now, right?”

You smiled. Friends were always important to have. Especially when starting in a new work position.

As if by magic, the intercom crackled and Marie’s familiar voice rumbled into the elevator. 

_“Hey, you both doing alright? The Fire Department’s here, they’re gonna open up the shaft and pull you onto the 4th floor. Looks like they’re gonna have to cut you guys out.”_

“How much longer we talking, Marie?”

 _“Shouldn’t be more than five minutes.”_

Shane looked at you and you nodded.

“That’s cool.” 

_"Alright."_

Shane sighed with relief, and then his eyes shot open. “Oh fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh god, Ryan’s gonna torture me forever for this. He’s gonna say the elevator’s haunted or some shit. Still, maybe it’s a good thing I was stuck in here and not him. Poor dude would have had a heart attack.”

You chuckled and suddenly remembered the paper ball in your pocket. You reached in to retrieve it. 

“If he gives you hell, just return this to him.”

Shane looked at the paper ball and burst out laughing.


End file.
